In just two decades from now, half of all ships sailing in Japan's coastal waters may be self-piloted.
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That's the ambitious goal of the Nippon Foundation, a public interest organization that supports the development of autonomous sea-going ships. It aims to see unmanned ships make up 50% of Japan's local fleet by 2040.
With the foundation’s backing, a group that includes Japan’s largest shipping company, Nippon Yusen, plans to pilot a self-driving container ship from Tokyo Bay to Ise, a coastal city in central Mie prefecture, in February. According to Nippon Yusen, the 236-mile journey will be the world’s first test of an autonomous ship in an area with heavy maritime traffic.
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The global autonomous shipping could reach about $166 billion by 2030. “When it comes to ship automation, our mission is for Japan to take over the rest of the world,” said Satoru Kuwahara, general manager at Nippon Yusen, a subsidiary of Japan Marine Science Inc., in an interview last week.
Kuwahara, himself a captain, says there is a real need for autonomous ships in Japan as the country’s workforce shrinks and ages. In the country’s domestic tanker industry, for example, about 40% of crews are 55 or older, according to a recent survey.
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The Nippon Foundation estimates that taking into account factors such as artificial intelligence, which will improve efficiency, the development of unmanned ships will have a positive impact of about $9 billion on Japan's economy by 2040.
Information source: latimes.com
